The U.S. Army wants the AWOL private from Kentucky to go to Iraq to fight George W. Bush's "war on terror," but McCall's conscience won't allow it.
He applied to be a conscientious objector, but as his date to ship out approached, McCall realized that, like many other "COs," he'd be in the war zone before a decision came down.
So, in early October, the six-foot-two GI followed the route of an estimated 50,000 previous American war resisters to Vancouver and applied for refugee status, which at least delays his possible extradition to the U.S., where he'd likely be tried for desertion.
"I don't want to go to Iraq because I don't want to be a war criminal," McCall, 20, said yesterday.
"Any participation in the war in Iraq can be punishable as a war crime. The war is a criminal act, in my opinion and many countries' opinion."
The above, noted by Vince, is from Andy Ivens' "AWOL U.S. soldier seeks refugee status:
American finds hope in NDP MP Libby Davies' lobbying efforts" (The Province). The US Congress doesn't have the guts to do it now but maybe, after the illegal war is over, they can take a look at the CO process and how the US military repeatedly violated it, how they repeatedly refused to follow written policy and invented 'reasons' for denial that weren't -- by the policy itself -- reasons for denial. It won't make any difference -- not to the illegal war that's ended or to any future wars -- because they've sat around and played stupid when they should have provided oversight but it is something people should be aware has happened and happened repeatedly.
Luke Baker (Reuters) reports on the possibility that British troops stationed in Iraq might be reduced by half in 2008 and how the UK's House of Commons Defence Committee is raising objections to that. Mussab al-Khairalla reports the de-de-Baathification issue heated up today in the Iraqi parliament with a Sunni member of parliament (Abed Mutlaq al-Jubouri) decrying the "racism" involved in preventing former members of the "Baath party from public life".
A number of e-mails are bringing up one topic. The e-mails from members that I've seen this morning have gotten a reply. If you didn't get one, I didn't have time yet to read your's. With the writers' strike ongoing, Ava and I are grabbing non-scripted (well scripted by the White House perhaps but the White House isn't on strike -- it would have to do some actual work before it could go on strike) programs. We saw that and plan to address it this coming Sunday. Normally, it would already be covered here but we've already made plans to address it on Sunday.
Bonnie reminded me that those checking in on Monday may need it noted that Kat' s "Kat's Korner: Ann Wilson sings and stands tall" went up Sunday morning, Ruth's latest report went up Saturday night and Isaiah's "From the kitchen of the Peace Resister" went up last night.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
brad mccall
andy ivensthe world today just nuts
kats korner
ruths report
